Swansea board to hold hearing on asking state to make Bark Street intersection a four-way stop

Wednesday

Jul 12, 2017 at 12:14 AMJul 12, 2017 at 6:20 PM

Michael Holtzman Herald News Staff Reporter @MDHoltzman

SWANSEA — While making Bark Street’s busiest intersection a four-way stop is not the long-term safety solution, the Board of Selectmen agreed Tuesday night to hold a public hearing before petitioning the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to change it to one, possibly leaving the door open for additional solutions.

“I’d like to see us take that,” Town Administrator John McAuliffe said of adding stop signs east from Stevens Road and westbound from Buffington Street.

They would be added to the northbound and southbound Bark Street stop signs where flashing beacons were added recently to combat speeding and accidents.

McAuliffe and David Loring, vice president of Tighe & Bond engineering consultants, who presented portions of its study evaluation, said there had been a bad accident at the intersection three months ago and two bad ones last year.

In six years between 2009 and 2014, there were 54 auto crashes, more than one-third involving personal injuries, according to a Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District study the Tighe & Bond commissioned report built upon.

Selectmen Vice Chairman Derek Heim said their data showed some traffic would be backed up but safety improved with a four-way intersection while the town and state worked out additional measures.

Loring agreed with the four-way stop sign concept, as did the other two selectmen, Chairman Christopher Carreiro and Steven Kitchin, and McAuliffe.

Loring also noted there would be more rear-end accidents and driver frustration.

Officials outlined long-discussed recommendations that included a four-way stop, four-way traffic light and a traffic slowing and directing “roundabout.”

Loring estimated cost of the roundabout at $1.2 million to $1.5 million and a light signalization at $500,000.

If the state put the project on its five-year Transportation Improvement Projects list for funding, it would involve MassDOT design and contractor approval. “It would be at least five years,” Loring said in a follow-up interview.

One of the issues on state-permitted Bark Street is whether traffic volume qualifies for upgrades by the state, officials said.

That authority stems from federal and state funding approval 20 years at the intersection, which requires any traffic controls and regulations subsequently pass state muster, Loring and Michael Schrader, Tighe & Bond project manager, said.

“They would likely issue a letter of approval,” Loring said.

Weekday traffic north on Bark Street averages 7,457 trips and between 5,000 and 5,800 in the other three directions, says the consultant’s report.

Schrader said making the intersection four-way would likely build public support for the state to construct a roundabout. Kitchin called the added stop signs a “stop-gap measure.”

“I think everybody seems to agree that's (the roundabout) the ultimate solution,” Schrader said after the meeting.

Carreiro asked McAuliffe to schedule a public hearing that would determine whether the town asks MassDOT for its approval to make Bark-Stevens-Buffington a four-way stop. He was shooting for a July 31 hearing.

In a related matter of this intersection, the town’s highway director, Alan Corvi, said paving along nearly two miles of Bark Street to Marvel Street, and one-third of a mile east on Buffington to the Somerset line, has been completed under Chapter 90 funding.

However, Corvi needs another $25,000 from Chapter 90 allotments to finish striping along both roads, he told officials. It puts the project at $395,000 and leaves $522,864 in the Chapter 90 account from state funding, Corvi said.

Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com or call him at 508-676-2573.